A Bury cinema has reported a record-breaking week after the release of Barbie and Oppenheimer.
Vue Bury on The Rock has reported its biggest week ever, smashing attendance records as customers went to watch new releases, Barbie and Oppenheimer.
The venue is one of 37 across the UK and Ireland that saw Vue break its nationwide record that has stood since the release of Skyfall in 2012.
Toby Bradon, general manager of Vue UK and Ireland, said: “It has been great to see our venues buzzing for Barbenheimer all week, as we have seen huge demand across the whole country to see both films, with Barbie, in particular, looking set to become the biggest title of 2023 and could well enter the top ten highest grossing of all time.”
Barbie and Oppenheimer prompted the biggest weekend for UK cinema-going since 2019, according to the UK Cinema Association and Vue said a fifth of its customers had purchased tickets to see both films in a double bill.
Greta Gerwig’s film about the Mattel doll, played by Margot Robbie, having an existential crisis and Christopher Nolan’s epic about the “father” of the atomic bomb, generated almost £30 million at the UK box office, the group, which represents the interests of UK cinema operators, said.
More than 2,000 of Vue’s Barbie screenings were sold out, according to the company.
Tim Richards, chief executive and founder of Vue International, told the PA news agency: “We knew it was going to be a big weekend based on the advanced bookings, which were also the biggest since the pandemic.
“The numbers are phenomenal. We had over 500,000 customers come to Vue on the weekend alone. We had 4,000 sold-out sessions, 2,000 sold-out sessions for Barbie alone.
“But I think that it’s not just about Barbie and Oppenheimer, it’s just a return to cinema.
“Our customers never left us, we just haven’t had movies. If you look back in the last 12 months, we have set records with Avatar, one of the highest grossing movies in history.
“We’ve got Tom Cruise, at 60 years old, and Top Gun: Maverick delivered 1.5 billion dollars, the biggest movie of his career.
“And you look at smaller movies, you look at a black-and-white film, Belfast, to deliver one of the highest-grossing black-and-white films in the modern era.
“So it’s a supply issue, and not a demand issue – our customers are desperate to go out and watch a great movie with others.”
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